Metal News for March 17, 2011

We post metal news every day, throughout the day, covering thousands of metal bands including underground and unsigned bands. You are currently browsing the news archive, but you can also find news by band.

Anyone who thought the frozen black metal style was dead and buried needs to think again, as Tasmanian duo Astral Winter is gearing up to release a monstrous debut titled "Winter Enthroned." Black metal fans looking for an epic feel with a touch of melody need look no further than the band's upcoming opus.

While the recording progresses, band master mind Josh Young filled Metalunderground.com in on the direction of Astral Winter's first full-length and the apocalyptic themes of the lyrics. Josh also discusses recruiting vocalist Phil Hemsworth, the Tasmanian metal scene, and catching Metallica live in Melbourne. More...

Finnish black metal act Woland has issued the following announcement about streaming two songs online:

"You can now stream and download Woland's "Conquer All & Live Forever" promo directly from our MySpace page through our player. This is Woland's first release after being established in MMX. We are currently unsigned."

You can check out the songs "Conquer All" and "Live Forever" by heading over to the official Woland MySpace music profile.

Roadrunner Records has issued the following announcement about the March 24th date of the Avalanche tour being canceled:

"Unfortunately the Avalanche show on March 24th in Chicago, IL has been canceled. The tour featuring Stone Sour, Theory of a Deadman, Halestorm and The Art of Dying will be heading across the country over the next few months.

"Avalanche has released the following statement: 'Due to circumstances out of our control, the March 24th Chicago stop of the Avalanche Tour has been canceled. Refunds will be available at point of purchase.'"

A listing of the remaining upcoming Avalanche tour dates is available at this location.

Spiritual Beggars has checked in with the following announcement about canceling the band's previously announced Japanese tour:

"Due to the current situation in Japan following the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami, Spiritual Beggars are forced to cancel both of their previously announced shows in Japan next week.

"Spiritual Beggar's Japanese promoter Creativeman has issued a statement and ticket refund information in Japanese on their website here.

"As much as we were looking forward to playing these shows for our fans in Japan, the time is not right for this now. Our outbound flights got canceled by the airline and our promoter thought it best to pull the plug. We are deeply saddened by the recent events in Japan and we wish everyone there the best and hope they'll be safe moving forward. Donations that will help the situation in Japan can be made at this location."

Starting today, Noisecreep.com is hosting an exclusive premiere of a new track from Engrained. Head over to this location and check out the track "Dead Man's Hand."

Engrained's first full length album "Deep Rooted" will be released through SPV/Steamhammer on April 5th in North America. Recording, mixing, and mastering for the album was done by Tommy Newton who is known for his work with bands like Helloween, Guano Apes, Terry Hoax, UFO and many others.

You can also check out the previously uploaded track "Holiday Prostitute" by heading over here.

Swedish metal act Cipher System has posted a video clip of guitarist Johan Eskilsson recording solos and melodies for the band's upcoming album "Communicate the Storms." You can check out the clip below. The band is currently finishing up the recording, and will be heading to Studio Fredman next week to start the mixing process.

Agnostic Front's new album "My Life, My Way" will be released this coming Tuesday, March 22nd in North America. The band is giving fans an exclusive first listen to the entire new album on the Agnostic Front Facebook Page. Head over to this location to listen to the whole album.

The album's track listing is as follows:

1. City Street2. More Than a Memory3. Us Against the World4. My Life My Way5. That's Life6. Self Pride7. Until the Day I Die8. Now and Forever9. The Sacrifice10. A Mi Manera11. Your Worst Enemy12. Empty Dreams13. Time Has Come

To catch a glimpse of the band in the studio recording the new album, click here to watch a studio video update.

"And it was worth it all the way, we managed to make this by ourselves and friends,we managed to shut mouths and kick ass at the same time...DOOM METAL WITH COMPROMISE, which grows stronger everyday. And we wanna take the chance to raise our chalice of disease once again in the name of:

"Sandviken (SWE): Mia for accepting all our shit and taking care of our merch. Daniel for all the help and support, Arnöman family (Hasse, Marina, Mattias, Mikael) for their help with transport issues, Olle /Panzerschreck for fixing the gig, people at Kungen and Isole for jumping in. And of course the people/friends that showed up on this kickstart of the Tour...

"Helsinki (FIN): First of all Jussi (WCH) for fixing the mini-finnish part of the tour and Nikki for driving us around the land of the thousand lakes. Tyranny and Herem for joining the gig and Ilari for letting us stink at his place! Cheers to Niina too!"

The full tour blog and pictures from the road can be found at this location.

A Day To Remember has announced the band will be releasing "All I Want" as a 7” single with bonus acoustic version and B-Side etching as part of Record Store Day 2011. The limited edition colored 7” will be released in the U.S. as a clear purple pressing (limited 2,000) and internationally throughout Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, and Australia as a mint green pressing (limited 1,000).

You can also catch A Day To Remember on the road for the band's headlining GameChangers tour, or on The Mark Hoppus Show on Fuse TV Friday 3/18 at 11:00 pm EST.

Additional information on Record Store Day is available here. Opeth also recently announced a 7" single for Record Store Day, with details to be found at this location.

Michigan-based black metal group Winterus has announced an April 26th release date for its Lifeforce Records debut, "In Carbon Mysticism." The cover artwork for the album can be viewed below.

“We expect this album to change the way metal is heard from ear to ear,” said vocalist, Christopher Erich Neu. “With an honest delivery, including three live tracks, you can feel the passion of ever-maturing musicians that strive for something new and brilliant.”

The album consists of six studio tracks and three live recordings. The release was self-produced and engineered last winter in Battle Creek, MI, and mastered in Los Angeles by Maor Appelbaum (Cynic, Therion, Rob Halford). “We wanted a lo-fi, self-produced sound, not polished and strict or hiding behind Pro Tools,” added Neu. “Sonically, it's a very honest approach.”

NightShade will release the band's new album “Lost In Motion” in the U.S. on April 26th, 2011, and in Europe on May 13th, 2011. Noisecreep.com is now streaming a new song from the upcoming album, titled "The Depths of Memory." You can listen to the song by heading over to this location. The artwork and track listing for "Lost In Motion" are available here.

More bands have now been confirmed to appear at the upcoming Summer Breeze Open Air 2011, which is set to take place from August 18th - 20th in Germany. The newest additions to the festival are Benighted, Blitzkid, Deadlock, God Dethroned, Hackneyed, Mad Sin, Postmortem, and Powerwolf.

Full details on the festival are available here. The complete list of currently confirmed bands is as follows: More...

British thrashers Evile are set to enter the studio this weekend to begin recording their third album. Evile will be playing a show in London this Friday, 18th March with Chthonic, before heading to Prestatyn, Wales on Saturday for a performance at Hammerfest. The band will then be heading into Parlour Studios on Sunday to begin recording the follow-up to 2009's "Infected Nations," and will once again be working with producer Russ Russell.

Evile lead guitarist Ol Drake comments:

"This has been one hell of a 2011 already. We've been working non-stop on the material for Evile's third album since early last year, and the past few months saw the workload pile up drastically. We're on top of it though.

"Tomorrow we play London with our friends Chthonic from Taiwan, then we head over to Prestatyn for Hammerfest. Just like with Infected Nations, we're again heading to the studio shortly after playing Hammerfest, though this time it's the very day after. To the great Parlour Studios we will venture along with the even greater Russ Russell. He was at the helm/desk/brain for 'Infected Nations', and we see him as a member of the band, even more so on this third offering. We'll be in there for approximately a month, and we'll be focusing on roughly ten tracks to delight your ears.

"If I was to say what the direction of this third album would be, I'd have to say a mix of the approach to 'Enter the Grave', the ideas on 'Infected Nations' and an amalgamation of brand new ideas we can't wait to try out. We have to try out new things as artists; we don't ever ever want to stick to doing the same thing all the time. It will be aggressive yet mature, in my opinion, and before your ask - yes, fast."

Dutch death metal act Pestilence will be releasing the new album "Doctrine" in April, 2011 through Mascot Records. The eleven-track CD was recorded and mixed at Woodshed Studio in Germany with engineer Victor Bullok. Pestilence is now streaming two new songs from the album, titled "Salvation" and "Sinister," through the band's official web page. You can check out the songs here.

Noisecreep.com recently interviewed Art of Dying vocalist Jonny Hetherington about the front man playing poker and bottling his own BBQ sauce. An excerpt from the interview follows.

Noisecreep: We hear you bottle your own BBQ sauce.

Jonny Hetherington: Oh yes. I'm a huge fan of [sauce] in general, so I've started messing with my own BBQ and hot sauce. I absolutely love the flavor of the Habanero pepper (or Scotch Bonnet). It's one of my favorite flavors on the planet. And of course there's the heat that comes along with it that is pretty incredible as well. Last year, I was on a mission to try and find an all-natural Habanero sauce without any crap in it, and well, I couldn't find any. So, I decided to start making my own.

I'm proud to say my first batch was pretty killer and I haven't looked back since. I've been mixing the heat and flavor of the pepper with locally grown fruits and spices, and I've been able to find a really nice balance between the two. I think the fig version is my favorite so far. I'm fortunate to have access to fresh fruit from British Columbia, Canada, where I live, so that is a big part of it. So far, each bottle contains 20 Habaneros, so I'm guessing it's sitting at around 200,000 Scoville units. In other words -- it's damn spicy!

Noisecreep: What kind of style is it? We know BBQ aficionados take this stuff very seriously.

Jonny: The BBQ sauce I've been messing with is hot and smoky, with quite a bit of Jack Daniels spilled into it. C'mon, how good does that sound?

Noisecreep: When we think of BBQ, Canada isn't the first place that comes to mind. How popular is that kind of food up there?

Jonny: If you're talking traditional BBQ then yes, it's pretty hard to find the real deal. Although in Vancouver, we have a few good ones. Memphis Blues and Slim'z are a couple you should check out. But as far as backyard BBQ goes, Canada has to be at the top of the list! I mean, we're out there in the rain, snow, whatever -- we love to grill.

Finnish metal act Amorphis will visit Taiwan for the first time on June 19th, at Club Legacy in Taipei. The show is in support of the band's upcoming album "The Beginning Of Times," which will be released the end of May. The album will also be preceded by the single "You I Need" in April, and the cover artwork for the new album can be found here.

The track listing is as follows:

1. Battle For Light2. Mermaid3. My Enemy4. You I Need5. Song of the Sage6. Three Words7. Reformation8. Soothsayer9. On a Stranded Shore10. Escape11. Crack in a Stone12. Beginning of Time13. Heart’s Song (digipack bonus)

Septekh has issued the following announcement about signing with Abyss Records to release a new EP:

"Septekh signs with Indianapolis based, extreme metal, independent label Abyss Records for the release of the six track EP 'The Seth Avalanche' later this fall. The songs were recorded in Stockholm in March 2009 at Midtown Music and was produced and mixed by Erik (borsch) Forsberg and mastered by Mattias Dir Fornell. The tracks are:

1. Fuckslut From Hell2. Shoot Them All3. Blunt Force To The Head4. Not Quite What I Had In Mind5. Eating The Maneater6. The Seth Avalanche

"Five of the six songs are available for listening on our MySpace. All except 'Blunt Force To The Head.' The EP has so far been reviewed under the working title 'Not Quite What I Had In Mind.' Additional recording, production and master have been added and now we feel that we are able to send it out there and move on.

"More music is brewing in the NORRTUNADÖDS pot. Another four track EP is in the making on which the song 'Burn It To The Ground' is featured. And we are continuously busy at work writing new stuff. Delving deeper into the dark foundations of humanity. And deeper into your ears."

Imperia has posted several sample tracks online from the band's upcoming album "Secret Passion," which is set for release on March 25th. You can check out the songs by heading over to the newly redesigned Imperia MySpace profile. The artwork for the album is also available for viewing below.

David Ellefson of Megadeth has scheduled several in-store appearances over the next few weeks while in Europe to sign autographs and some brief bass playing. These appearances are not considered full on Hartke clinics like the others he has done lately, but David will be there to show off his gear and meet with the fans. All appearances start at 12:00 noon with the first happening this Saturday, March 19 at RIFF Musikk in Oslo, Norway.

The dates and locations for David's upcoming appearances are as follows:

Titans Eve has checked in with the following update about lining up a North American tour and gearing up to release a new album:

"Titans Eve wants to thank the radio DJs and music directors of the campus loud charts and everyone who is supporting Titans Eve across the country! I hope I get the chance to play for all of you as Titans Eve is gearing up and launching one of the biggest tours an independent band is capable of doing.

"This tour will see us across North America and back. It will be a two month juggernaut of a tour that will be our North American showcase for our album The Divine Equal. Titans Eve will also be touring South America in December and then releasing our second album Life Apocalypse early next year. See ya soon!"

SXSW Music had yet to officially begin, but on Tuesday night, I headed out to Klub Krucial to catch the first metal show I had on my schedule. Dubbed “Swampfest,” the show was to feature local bands Mammoth Grinder, Hod, The Roller, and Atlanta’s Kylesa. The venue apparently is host to all sorts of shows, apparently hip hop venue according to some patrons I talked to. But it worked fairly well for a metal show just the same. It was wider than deep and had a balcony, which is where I gravitated to escape the mosh pit and from being directly in front of the stacks of speakers, as no ear plugs were needed up there.

First up was Mammoth Grinder. They played a noisy, thrashy style of music. The vocals were completely incomprehensible to me, but it sounded like more the sound system’s fault than the vocalist’s. Their style of thrash was in the same vein as Slayer’s, and the final song that finally got the crowd going a bit sounded something like a Slayerized version of “Orgasmatron” in tempo and riffs, although judging by the vocals, that did not seem to actually be the case. More...

Korpius has checked in with the following update about the release of the new album "Shades of Black" and announcement about streaming a new sample online:

"A sample from the song 'Awaking Terror' is now streaming online on ReverbNation. We will be working all week-end with the Black Fawn Films team on a video shoot for this track. We'll keep you posted on further developments!

"'Shades of Black' will have an early release on iTunes on March 21st. This is the only place where it will be available before the official release date of April 4th.

"Finally, we will be updating our merch store with two new T-shirt models by the end of the week. They will be available at our next shows."

Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian, who recently revealed that he will not be taking part in the band's forthcoming European tour dates, of which several also feature Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer, because his wife is expected to give birth this July. He has posted a message online detailing why he chose to sit out the tour, and why Sepultura guitarist Andreas Kisser will be filling in for him. His post reads as follows:

"Hello my friends, how are you all? I hope you're all kicking ass!

"I know there's been a lot of rhetoric out there regarding upcoming Anthrax shows, Big 4 and otherwise. I've been debating on whether or not to make a public statement about this as it really pertains to my personal life and I generally like to keep that personal. Because this is affecting my band life I feel like you, my loyal friends, deserve to hear from me personally.

"I will be playing the Big 4 show April 23 in Indio, CA s well as the shows in Manila, Bangkok, and Japan that will follow the Indio show.

"I won't be playing the shows scheduled from July 2 - 16 in Europe and the UK. My wife Pearl and I are expecting our first child and she is due literally the day of the Big 4 Sonisphere show in France. More...

Swedish metal act Hammerfall has revealed the tracklisting for its upcoming full length album. The new album, titled "Infected," will see its release on May 20th, 2011. You can view the album's tracklisting below.

1. Patient Zero2. B.Y.H.3. One More Time4. The Outlaw5. Send Me A Sign6. Dia De Los Muertos7. I Refuse8. 666 - The Enemy Within9. Immortalized10. Let's Get It On11. Redemption

Former Megadeth axeman Marty Friedman, who currently lives in Japan, has posted the following statement online announcing that he will be selling his own Megadeth-era guitars for help in the relief of Japanese earthquake vicitims.

"Thank you all for your support and prayers. I am 100% fine, 100% healthy and in better shape than ever. However, there are many, many people here in Japan that are facing an unbelievable tragedy.

"It's time to go to the next step. I will be auctioning ALL of my guitars from the Megadeth-era and will donate 100% of the proceeds to the earthquake relief.

"I am going to L.A. right NOW to the climate controlled lockup where all the guitars have been in their cases since January 2000. All guitars I used on all the Megadeth recordings, tours, videos, everything WILL be auctioned off.

"When I get to the lockup, I will do my best to sort out which was used for what (I suck at that...I'm sure many of you guys know better than I do) and notate as many details as possible. Pictures, descriptions and how to bid will all be up on my U.S. website as well as my Japanese website within 2-3 days.

"I have NEVER sold ANY of my guitars before; this is the only way these guitars will leave my possession. I urge you to please spread the word and most of all BID HIGH. You will be putting a huge deposit in the 'karma bank' and have some pretty cool guitars to show for it. DO IT!"

German progressive metal act The Ocean has revealed the dates for its forthcoming headline tour of Europe. Support on the trek will come from Intronaut, Red Fang and Earthship. you can view the full list of dates, cities and venues below.

The Ghost Inside has revealed the dates for its upcoming tour of South Africa. Support on the trek will come from Truth & Its Burden, Facing The Gallows and The Dead Will Tell. You can view the full list of dates, cities and venues below.

American progressive metal act Between The Buried And Me has revealed the dates for its upcoming headline tour of Europe. Support on the trek will come from Animals As Leaders. You can view the full list of dates, cities and venues below.